Greg Laurie - Does God Feel Your Pain?

TOPICS: Pain, Compassion

Let’s pray. Lord, as we have just sung, we owe all to You. We couldn’t even speak to You right now if it were not for Your death on the cross, Lord, and Your resurrection, where You opened to us a new and living way. We could address God as Father, and we could come through Your name and be heard and have our prayers answered. We’re so thankful for that. Lord, I ask You to bless this time as we open Your Word and learn more about what happened at the cross and why it is so significant. So bless this time of Bible study, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, you can all be seated. I would like you to grab your Bibles, if you would, please, and turn to two passages today: Acts chapter 8 and Isaiah 53. The title of my message is «Jesus in You: The God Who Feels Your Pain.» A couple of quick announcements before we get started: it’s only 14 days until our crusade in Utah, uh, there at UVU. Fourteen days, a couple of weeks, and we really need your prayer. Some of you are going to join us; I know many have said they’re going to come and be a part of this event. Of course, it will be streaming on all of our platforms. I hope you’ve downloaded our app that you can have for your television, your tablet, or your phone. It’s called Harvest Plus. It’s in any app store, even Android. I’m kidding! Android’s good, but it’s for everybody. So we want you to download that app, and you can watch it at home. You might have a watch party. A watch party is basically where you invite a bunch of people over to your home on that Sunday -not this coming Sunday, but the following. No worries, that’s right, yeah, and that following Sunday, watch it live as it happens and then have follow-up conversations after the event. So let’s all be praying for that.

And then secondly, I told you I did an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio for my podcast that’s now out. So again, if you download the Harvest Plus app, you can watch it. You can find it on other platforms that we have out there. But I hope you watch it; it was a fascinating conversation. Marco is such an intelligent guy and so gifted, just the right guy in the right place, I believe, in the history of our nation. We talked about a lot of geopolitical issues, but I also asked him about anti- Semitism. Why is there a resurgence of anti- Semitism right now? We talked about that, but then I asked him some off-the-wall questions, like, «Hey, what’s your favorite comfort food?» You might be surprised by the answer. You have to watch the podcast to find out. I even found out what Marco Rubio’s favorite movie is. You’ll be surprised by that too. No, it’s not Jesus Revolution, but it should be.

So, all right, Jesus in you, the God who feels your pain. I think most of us will do just about anything to avoid pain and inconvenience. I mean, at the first sign of a headache, we pop a Tylenol, Advil, or maybe an aspirin. We go into a panic if our phone battery drops below 20%-it almost feels like a medical emergency. We try to avoid pain and inconvenience. I know with my crazy hip issue that bothered me for a couple of years, I kept putting it off. I went to the doctor; he did an MRI and said, «You’re bone on bone; it’s just going to get worse. When you can’t stand it anymore, come back to me.» Oh, okay. So I got cortisone shots, and after a while, I had to go, and I ended up on a cane. I thought, «I am not going to be a guy with a cane.» No. So I had the surgery done. The funny thing is, in my attempt to avoid pain, I was having more pain. When I finally got the surgery, the pain was immediately gone. So in trying to avoid pain, I prolonged it.

But that’s how we are as human beings; we try to avoid any kind of inconvenience, anything that will trouble us. But I want to talk about Jesus and how He did not avoid the pain; He embraced the pain. He went toward the pain when He went to the cross and died for the sins of the world. He stepped right into it. In fact, when He was hanging on that cross, as you recall, they offered Him a sponge filled with a fluid that would have a numbing effect. And I must tell you, He was in the worst pain you can imagine after what they had done to Him- shredding His back with a Roman cat-of-nine-tails, punching Him in the face, ripping His beard from His face, the crown of thorns on His head. Oh, it was so awful! And yet, He didn’t take anything to numb the pain; He faced it all for us.

And we’re going to look at this in Isaiah chapter 53, and we will examine some of the most important questions in life, like: how can a person come into a relationship with God? Is there any more important question than that? How can a person come into a relationship with God? And how can one be free from the guilt and remorse over their sins? And finally, how can one be certain that their sins are forgiven and that they will go to heaven when they die? It’s all found here in Isaiah 53. If you were to ask what is the most important single chapter in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53 probably would be the answer. And if it’s not the answer, it would be one of three that you might cite.

Years ago, I’ve told you about this before; I was having lunch with Billy Graham. I asked him, after our lunch was done, «Billy, if an older you could speak to a younger you, what would you tell yourself? What would you encourage yourself to speak on more?» His response was, «I would speak more on the cross of Christ and the blood because that’s where the power is.» And that is so true! When I go to Utah in 14 days, that’s going to be my message. But that’s my message wherever I go because I’ve come to discover that there is power in the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s so important to talk about; any evangelistic message that does not make a beeline to the cross is missing the point. Sometimes, in our attempts to cross over, we forget to bring the cross over. There’s a place for one’s personal testimony, and I’ll often start my messages by just telling my own story, as you would probably do when you’re talking to someone about Jesus. But I know that the power is in the cross-the power is in the message of the blood of Christ that was shed for us.

But we ask, why is that so important? The simple answer: Because we sinned against God, and a price had to be paid for our sin. A substitute had to be offered. In the Old Testament, that would be the slaying of the lamb. It was a ceremony they would undergo where, symbolically, they would take our sins and place them on that animal that would be put to death. But it was fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus Christ; everything was pointing to Him. As I’ve said before, Jesus is in the Old Testament concealed; He’s in the New Testament revealed. So He fulfilled it all. And that’s why John the Baptist said of Jesus, «Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.» And we don’t see that in any place more clearly than right here in Isaiah 53.

What’s interesting is that it’s one of the most detailed accounts of the crucifixion. Now, you might say, «Now, Greg, the most detailed accounts are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.» And I wouldn’t argue with that, but there are actually details, excuse me, in Isaiah 53 you don’t find even in the Gospels. And ironically, this was written 700 years before the event. Well, how did that happen? Well, Isaiah was the prophet Isaiah, and God gave him a glimpse into the future. You see, God can speak of the future as accurately as you can speak of the past. I would even say more so because I often get my past muddled. I’ll be telling a story to some people about something that happened to me, and my wife will say, «That’s not the way it happened.» I’ll say, «You weren’t even there!» She’ll say, «True, but you told it to me differently the first time.» You know, and doggone it, she’s right! So that’s true. Okay, so I can’t even remember the past accurately. God remembers the past and, of course, can then predict the future. So when God tells us that there will come a world leader one day called the Antichrist, you know that’s going to happen. When God tells us a great period of difficulty will come on our planet, known as a great tribulation period that will last for seven years, you know that’s going to happen. And when God tells us that there’s going to be an event where all true believers are caught up to meet the Lord in the air before that tribulation period and before the world leader is revealed, you know that’s going to happen. And when God says Christ is going to return in the second coming, you know that will happen too, and all of the other things that the Bible speaks of.

So we’re in our series, Jesus in You Too. We’ve looked at some Old Testament appearances of Christ. We saw Him, of course, in His wrestling match with Jacob. We saw Him there in the story of Abraham and Isaac. We saw Him appearing to Gideon and Joshua before they went into battle. Recently, we saw Him in the fiery furnace, walking with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And now we shift gears to this chapter in the Old Testament that speaks in great detail of the mission and work of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon, the great British preacher, said of Isaiah 53, quote, «This chapter is the very heart of the gospel. It’s the Bible in miniature.» End quote. It’s so significant. So let’s look at it together.

But before we do, let me sort of set the table, if you will. I told you this story before, but remember, after Jesus was crucified and He rose again, He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they did not know He had risen again. So He joins them in conversation and, loose paraphrase, says, «Hey, guys, what’s up? Why the long face?» They say, «Oh, haven’t you heard about Jesus of Nazareth?» «No? Tell me about Him,» says Jesus. And so they tell Jesus about Jesus, and they don’t do a very good job. «Well, we were hoping past tense He would have been the one to deliver Israel, but He was crucified, and it’s been three days since this event happened.»

And then Jesus says to these two disciples, «Oh fools and slow to believe all the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?» Then we read, «Beginning at Moses and the prophets, He interpreted to them all the scriptures concerning Himself.» Wow! I wish I could have heard that message. I would like to have been a fly on the wall-a guided tour of all the messianic passages pointing to Jesus. And these guys are thinking, «Man, this guy really knows the Bible. You’d think he was there or something!» Yeah, get him, warm boys!

Then, at the end of their journey, He reveals Himself to them, and they realize they’ve been talking with Jesus Himself. But I’m sure He took them to Isaiah 53 because that would be the first go-to passage, or one of many you would go to talking about Jesus in the Old Testament. And then there’s another New Testament story -that’s Acts chapter 8 — where we read about a man from Ethiopia who was the treasurer to Candace, the Queen. He went to Jerusalem, apparently searching for God. He was probably disillusioned with all the false gods of his culture, and he wanted to know more about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But instead of finding the vibrant faith that was once there, he found legalism and dead rituals. But he did obtain something of tremendous value. They gave to him, no doubt because he was a foreign dignitary, a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

Now, they didn’t have printing presses back then, so it’s a pretty valuable thing to have a handwritten scroll by the scribes themselves. And he’s reading in Isaiah 53. And so there’s Philip out in the desert because God had instructed Philip the evangelist to just go to the desert. He didn’t tell him what was going to happen after that; He said, «Just go to the desert.» And by the way, that reminds me of this simple fact: God leads us one step at a time. You know, we like detailed blueprints. We want to know what’s next and then what and then what. God said, «Just go to the desert.» A lot of times God wants you to take that first step of faith, and once you take that, the next step will be revealed to you. So there’s Philip hanging out in the desert. Along comes this guy with this entourage, reading from Isaiah 53. And he asks this question to Philip: «Of whom is the prophet speaking, of himself or of another?»

We’ll come back to the story, but let’s go now to Isaiah 53 and read a few verses, starting in verse one. «Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed His powerful arm?» Speaking of Jesus, He was a tender plant, a root out of dry ground. There was nothing to attract us to Him. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

We’ll stop there. If you’re taking notes, here’s point number one: Jesus was ordinary in appearance. Now, usually when you see a film about Jesus, whoever is cast to play the role is usually a very attractive guy that catches your attention. He’s easy to pick out from all of the other characters in the story, but according to the Bible, He was ordinary in appearance. Verse two says there was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him. In other words, Jesus wasn’t in the GQ: Galilee edition, like this, you know? You would never, «Here, let’s put it up on the screen.» This is just, this is for fun, by the way, okay? I like the little articles: «Has something good finally come out of Nazareth? Why you need a Bethlehem bro tunic,» and «Where to find one: Passover recipes you can nail even on the Sabbath.» Okay, that never existed. Don’t look for this copy of GQ! But that’s the whole point. He was not that guy. He was just Jesus, you know? He was a man that would blend in with the crowd.

I think, literally, if you saw a group of people and Jesus was standing there, I don’t know that you would know which one was Jesus. You’d say, «Greg, why do you say that?» Do you remember when Judas Iscariot went to tell the leaders he was going to show them which one was Jesus? I mean, he had to betray Him with a kiss. If Jesus looked the way He looks in religious art, you’d know who He is; He’s the guy with the blue sash. Jesus always has the blue sash. He might have a lamb wrapped around his neck. He might be holding a staff, and He always glows in the dark, right? No, Jesus would blend in with the crowd. He was ordinary in appearance. Jesus did not come from the marble palaces of Rome or from the halls of Herod. He came from dusty, funky little Nazareth.

We don’t realize what Nazareth actually was. He was born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth, and Nazareth was a nowhere place in the middle of nowhere. It sort of had a reputation for immorality. Here’s why: Because when Roman soldiers would be on their way from one place to another, they would stop in Nazareth. And so immorality took place there. It was sort of like the Barstow of the Bible. I’m not saying Barstow is known for immorality, but Barstow is known for a place where you gas up and get something to eat on your way to the river or whatever. But it’s not like, «Hey, I’m from Barstow.» That’s not something you would necessarily be proud of though you may be. But it was not a significant city: «Jesus of Rome?» Okay, now we’re talking! Or «Jesus of some other important place?» Jesus of Nazareth? What Nazareth? That’s why Nathaniel, when he heard this, said, «Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?»

You see, Jesus came from an ordinary place, and He was ordinary in appearance. But you see, when God looks at us, He doesn’t look on the outside; He looks more at the inside. And you know, when He went back to His hometown after He began His ministry, He was primarily rejected. In fact, we read He did no mighty work there because of their unbelief. He went into the synagogue, and He read the scroll of Isaiah, in this case 61, where it says, «The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach glad tidings, to heal the broken-hearted.» And as He reads it, He closes it and says, «This day this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes.»

Wait, did He just say what I thought He said? Is He saying He’s that guy? Is He saying that passage is talking about Him? Isn’t He the son of Joseph? Didn’t we watch Him grow up? That’s what He’s saying! That’s exactly what He was saying! And they turned against Him and took Him to a cliff and wanted to push Him off, and the Bible says He walked right through their midst. Sorry, boys, not today; I’m not going anywhere. I have a work to do. Still, they rejected Him.

See, here was their problem: they were looking for a militant Messiah, and God was sending them a suffering Savior. Oh yes, the Lord does promise in scripture that one day the King will return, but that’s the second coming. But before He would return in glory at the second coming, He would first come to suffer for the sins of the world. And they had missed that point altogether. So, He was ordinary in appearance.

Number two: He was extraordinary in what He came to do. So although He was ordinary in appearance, He was extraordinary in what He came to do. Look at Isaiah 53:3: «He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.» Uh, we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

We’ll stop there. What does it mean that Jesus was a man of sorrows? Does it mean Jesus never smiled? Does it mean Jesus never laughed? I don’t think so at all. I’ll explain what it means by a man of sorrows in a moment, but I think, in general, Jesus was a pretty happy, upbeat person. Why else would children be drawn to Him? And we know that the Bible speaks of the fact that Paul writes of the glorious good news entrusted to him by the blessed God. And «blessed» is just an alternate word for «happy.» So effectively, Paul was saying, «I’m bringing you the message from the happy God.» Jesus Himself said, «I told you these things to make you completely happy, as I am.» So if He walked around with a constant frown on His face and all He did was weep all day long, that’s hardly a man who could describe himself as happy.

So I think, in general, He was a happy person, even as God is a happy God. You know, we don’t think of God as a happy God or a smiling God. Sometimes we think of God as an angry God or a disinterested God. But did you know that when God sees you, He smiles? His face lights up. The promise that the priests would pronounce over the people was given where they would say, «The Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you peace.» I love that! The loving God, the happy God, the smiling God!

But, Greg, we just read He’s a man of sorrows! Oh yes, He was! He was a man of sorrows when He bore the sin of the world at the cross of Calvary. When He hung there and cried out those words, «Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?» which means, «My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?» That was Him being the suffering Savior, being the man of sorrows. When He contemplated the horrors of the cross in the garden of Gethsemane, it was under such intense pressure. I’m going to take a drink of water (awkward moment). I’m over it. Are you okay?

So when He was in Gethsemane, that was weird-it was weird, wasn’t it? Just had to clear my throat. All right! When He was in the garden of Gethsemane, He was under such intense pressure. Dr. Luke, who was a physician by the way, said He sweat as it were great drops of blood. What does that even mean? Some medical experts think that Luke, in his first-century way, was trying to describe something known as hematidrosis. Hematidrosis is a special condition one experiences when they’re under such intense stress that they perspire, and their perspiration is mixed with blood. Is that what Luke was describing? Could be.

But we know that at that point, contemplating the horrors of Calvary, He was a man of sorrows, and by the way, though He knew everything that was going to happen to Him- though He knew how He would be mistreated and the physical abuse He would have to go through-the thing I believe He recoiled from, that caused Him to say, «Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me,» that thing, I believe, was the sin of the world because He had never sinned. He never even had a single thought out of harmony with His Father. So to take all the sin of the world… I mean, just take my sin alone- that’s too much! -but to add yours and then all of our sins collectively-that was what caused Him to recoil.

So yes, He was the man of sorrows, but He stepped right into our broken world and felt the weight of it. Jesus didn’t just send us a sympathy card from heaven; He showed up in person. So when we think about Jesus understanding pain, that’s not just theory. He experienced it personally. He knows what it’s like to weep. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus and over the city of Jerusalem. He knows what it’s like to be abandoned by friends. He knows what it’s like to go through the difficulties you and I go through. He is a man of sorrows, and He understands grief.

And grief is very hard. Grief is different from just basic sorrow. Grief is usually connected to the loss of a loved one. It could be a spouse; it could be a child; it could be a close friend. But when someone you love is taken from you, you experience grief. It’s an ache that hits you in the middle of the night. You can’t believe it actually happened. Sorrow passes through you, but grief moves in and takes residence for a while, and it’s very difficult to go through. But Jesus knows exactly what it’s like. I talk a lot to people who’ve lost loved ones because our son went to be with the Lord 16 years ago. People reach out to me all the time-not just from our church but from all over the place-and I have many conversations with them and do what I can to try to help them, pray with them, and share some things that I’ve learned.

But, in many ways, grief is like, well, it’s like when you’re out in the ocean and you’re surfing, and you get caught in the white water. You know what I’m talking about? And the last thing you want to do when you’re caught in the white water is paddle out toward the waves, but that is exactly what you should do. What you want to do is go back to the shore as quickly as possible. So you get into that impact zone and the waves start coming, and more waves come, and more waves come. Sometimes people have been so disoriented in the white water that they don’t know which way is up, and they swim down when they should be swimming up, and they drown! So if you have a boogie board or a surfboard, you also have probably a leash attached to it, right? Attached to your ankle? Grab your leash and pull on it, and it will always take you to the surface.

So grab the leash, you get to the surface, get a gulp of air, see ten more waves coming, and go down and try to get through them. The leash that gets us out of the white water is the Word of God, and it gets us to the surface where we can get a gulp of air and get perspective, even for a moment. And I can’t tell you how powerful the Word of God is. When fear envelops you, when grief overtakes you, quote scripture to yourself. And that is why you need to memorize scripture. And this is why you need to know the Bible when it hits you at 3:00 in the morning, and you think, «This is going to happen and that’s going to happen,» and you just speak to yourself from God’s very Word and say, «God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.» «The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?» Or, «Your loved one is gone; I’ll never see them again.» You will see them again because Jesus says, «I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.»

Learn the Bible! Quote the Bible! That’s your lifeline; that’s your leash to the surface to get a gulp of air. Having said all of that, grief is not necessarily a bad thing-it can be a good thing. And here’s why: The depth of your grief is an indication of the depth of your love. You grieve because you loved, and you love present tense as well. And Jesus said, «Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.» I’ve met Christians who’ve lost loved ones sometimes suddenly, and they’re not crying; they’re not mourning. They’re saying, «Well, they’re in heaven; I’m just going to be happy.»

I’ll say, «No, you need to cry! And you need to cry a lot because this is a process of healing. And you can’t just smile your way through catastrophic loss.» So it’s okay to grieve, but grieve and cry out to God, and Jesus will comfort you through your time of grieving, and He understands what you’re going through. He’s walked in your shoes. I like what Hebrews 4:15 says. It says, «This high priest of ours,» speaking of Christ, «understands our weaknesses, and He has faced all the same testings as we have, but He has not sinned.»

So Jesus knew sorrow and He understood grief. Number three: He loved us, and He died for us. Why did He do all this? He loved us, and He died for us. Isaiah 53:5: «He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the punishment for our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.»

Listen, Jesus was not an accidental victim; He was a conquering victor! He knew exactly what He was doing. No one took His life from Him; He laid it down of His own accord and spoke of it often. He said, «No one takes My life; I give it of Myself.» And that’s why He had to die. You say, «But why did He have to die in that way?» Because God plays by His own rules, and His Word says, «The soul that sins shall surely die,» and His Word says, «Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.» So He did this to fulfill what scripture said. He lived in the shadow of the cross from the moment He entered our world, and He did it because there was no other way to satisfy the righteous demands of God.

As hard as it was, there was no other way to satisfy God’s righteous demands. So He became our substitute; He went in our place. He paid the price. We sing in the song, «Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe.» And that’s exactly right! Sometimes people want to blame the death of Jesus on a race of people. It’s been said, «Well, the Jews killed Christ; they are the Christ killers.» The Jews didn’t kill Christ; I killed Christ. You killed Christ. My sins put Jesus Christ on that cross. I’m responsible; you’re responsible. And if you want to take it a step further and be really biblical about it, God is responsible. God the Father sent His Son to die on the cross. Romans 8:32 says, «God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all.» Romans 3:25 says, «God put Christ forward by His blood to be received by faith.» God the Father did it!

You see, there was no other way for these issues, these sins of ours to be dealt with. And then this amazing verse, Isaiah 53:10: «It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He has put Him to death.» Wait, what? How could it please the Father to bruise Him? Going back to our story that we looked at of Abraham and Isaac, you remember Abraham, in obedience to God, took his son, his only son whom he loved, and was willing to put that knife through him.

And then the son, who I told you was not just a little boy, but he was a young man able to take care of himself, willingly went. It’s a perfect picture of Calvary. It’s God the Father sending His Son to die, and it’s God the Son dying willingly for our sin. That’s exactly what happened. But how did it please the Father? It pleased Him because of what it accomplished, because our forgiveness was purchased.

It pleased Him because the eternal plan of salvation was fulfilled. It pleased Him because it brought about the infinite good. Here is the most evil act ever perpetrated by sinful hearts-this sinless Son of God, tortured, slaughtered, and heartlessly murdered in cold blood. Yet out of it came the greatest good of all time-our salvation, right? So that’s how it pleased the Father.

It didn’t please the Father to watch His Son suffer and die. It didn’t please the Father to make such a great sacrifice, but it pleased the Father because of what it accomplished. Point number four: Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. Verse seven of Isaiah 53: «He was oppressed; He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.» G. Campbell Morgan, the great commentator, summed it up this way, and I quote: «Never was silence so eloquent.» End quote.

And Jesus did not speak in His own defense. When He stood before King Herod, He didn’t speak a single word. When He was brought before Pilate, He said a few things, but not a word in His own defense. As a lamb before their shearers is quiet, so He opened not His mouth. Now, coming back to Acts chapter 8, picking that story up: So here’s Philip out in the desert. Along comes this Ethiopian eunuch, this man of great importance, reading aloud from Isaiah 53, trying to figure it all out. And here’s what happened next: Acts 8:34: «The eunuch asked Philip, 'Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else? '»

So beginning with the same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus. And as they rode along, they came to some water. The eunuch said, «Look, there’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?» And he ordered the carriage to stop. And they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch never saw him again, but he went on his way rejoicing.

I love this story. Here’s what’s interesting: So they’re cruising along, and the guy says, «Okay, I believe! I believe in Jesus Christ! Can I be baptized? Here’s some water. Why not here?» Well, okay! Philip didn’t say, «Well, you have to go through catechism first, don’t you? Wait, you have to hang around the church for a year so we can get to know you better, make sure you’re really converted. We have to get you in a small group quickly!» You see? Hey, you want to be baptized right now?

So how long does it take to be converted? Does it take years? Sometimes people say, «I’m in the process of converting.» Well, you might be checking out the claims of Christ, but you’re either converted or you’re not converted. Or to put it biblically, you’re either saved or you’re not saved. But it doesn’t take years. It doesn’t take months. It doesn’t take weeks. It doesn’t take days. It doesn’t even take hours. You can believe just like that! And I think most of you would look back on your moment of coming to Christ and say it just happened like a flash.

Not for everyone; for some, it’s more gradual, but for many, it’s like a flash. I know for me, it was like, «Boom! Suddenly I got it!» And I said, «I want Christ in my life.» And then we read after he baptized this guy, the Lord caught Philip away. Now, this is very interesting because the word used for catching Philip away is the Greek word «harpazo,» and it’s translated «rapture.» It’s the same word used in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says we will be «caught up» (harpazo) to meet the Lord in the air. But Philip wasn’t taken up; he was taken sideways-like 70 miles away! It was a sideways rapture! In other words, God took him from point A to point B.

It’d be like me preaching in Riverside and being caught away to Orange County! That’s a lot better than sitting on the freeway! I got to tell you that; I wish the Lord would do this with me sometimes, especially when I’m stuck in traffic! But here’s the point: and this was never repeated again; it’s sort of a one-off event. But here’s the end of the story that I love: the man from Ethiopia went on his way rejoicing! You know, he found who he was looking for.

Let me contrast him briefly with another man: the man from Ethiopia-powerful, wealthy, influential. Now, there’s another man we read about in the New Testament. We don’t know his name; we just call him the rich young ruler. Remember him? He’s a young dude, very successful, made his way in life, accomplished a lot. He had a super cool BMW chariot, you know? Pulled up to Jesus, drinking a lavender latte! «Hey, what’s up?» He says, «Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?» Probably thought Jesus was saying, «Hey man, I want you on the team! You’re good-look at you! I need a guy like you! I got a bunch of ragtag fishermen and a tax collector; I want you! By the way, can we use your chariot?»

Jesus says, «Hmm, why do you call me good? There’s none good but God! Okay, keep the commandments. You shall not steal; you shall not lie; you shall not commit adultery; honor your father and mother.» And the Bible says that the rich young ruler said, «All of these I have kept since I’ve been a little boy!» And then we read, «Jesus looked at him and loved him.»

I love that because that kid was lying! What are you talking about? All these I’ve kept from my youth-no one has kept the commandments from their youth! The commandments were not given to make you righteous; they were given to show you how unrighteous you are. The commandments were given to drive you into the open arms of Jesus. «All these I’ve kept from my youth.» Instead of reading, «Jesus looked at him and loved him,» it would have made more sense to read, «And Jesus looked at him and smacked him across the face and said, 'What are you talking about, Willis! '» Okay, I said, «dated reference!» But I mean, give me a break!

I think Jesus looked at him and thought, «Right? Aren’t you cute? All these I’ve kept from my youth! Oh, really? Okay,» says Jesus. «Take all of your stuff, sell it, and give the money to the poor, and come follow me!» And we read that the man went away sorrowful, for he had many possessions.

So what was his problem? Was his problem that he had stuff? No! His problem was that his stuff had him. Because Jesus never said this to anybody else. This was just for this guy because that young man worshiped his things, and those things were more important to him than God Himself. To another person, Jesus might say, «Break off that relationship that’s dragging you down spiritually and follow me.» To another, He might say something else again. It was a one-off conversation that was not repeated again, and that man went away sad.

So here’s two men, both powerful, both influential; both came and heard the gospel. One went away glad; the other went away sad. Now you have a choice as to how you’re going to go away from here today. You can go away glad; you can go away sad. You can say, «Well, I don’t like this; I don’t want to be a Christian; I don’t want this life.» You can live the way you want; God’s given you a free will. Or you can go away glad by believing in Jesus Christ.

And I want to close by giving you an opportunity to come into a relationship with the God who loves you, the God who has a plan for you, the God who can forgive you of all of your sins. I raised those questions earlier-how can a man have their sins forgiven? Simple answer: By the blood of Jesus, by admitting to God they’re a sinner and asking Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for their sin and rose again from the dead, to come into their life and be their Savior and Lord. You need to do that. I can’t do this for you. The person who brought you here today can’t do this for you. Your wife or your husband can’t do this for you. Your parents can’t do it for you. You have to say, «Lord, come into my life.»

Have you done that yet? And is your sin forgiven? Do you know with certainty that when you die you will go to heaven? In a few moments we’re going to receive communion together, where we take the bread, we drink of the cup; it symbolizes the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. And by the way, this is for believers only. Communion is something that Jesus instituted; it is to be observed by people that are a part of His church.

And what I mean by that is people that have asked for His forgiveness and have become children of God as a result. In fact, the Bible even says if you’re not a believer, you should not receive the elements of communion because, in doing so, you eat and drink judgment to yourself. I think sometimes they think, «Well, it’s a good ritual. A little religion will do me some good.» You don’t need a little religion; you need a lot of Jesus. That’s what you need!

So before we receive communion together, I want to extend this opportunity for you to ask Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin. Let’s all pray: Father, I pray for anyone here, anyone watching, listening, wherever they are-if they don’t have this relationship with You, let this be the moment they believe. Let this be the moment they come to You and find forgiveness. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Well, our heads are bowed, and our eyes are closed, and we’re praying. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like Him to forgive you of your sin? Would you like to know that when you die you will go to heaven? Are you ready to say yes to Jesus today? If so, wherever you are, I want you to raise your hand up, and I want to pray for you. Just raise your hand up, saying, «I need Jesus! I want Christ in my life! Pray for me.» Raise your hand up-I’ll pray for you wherever you are. God bless you; I can see you. God bless you! Raise your hand up; let me pray for you. God bless you!

Maybe you’re watching a screen right now. Of course, I can’t see you, and that doesn’t really matter, but the Lord does see you. Why don’t you raise your hand up, saying, «Yeah, I need Jesus!» I’ll pray for you as well. I’m going to ask every one of you who raised your hand, if you would please, I want you to stand to your feet, and I’m going to lead you in a prayer where you will ask Christ to come into your life.

Again, stand up if you raised your hand, even if you did not. You want Jesus to come into your life? You want to go to heaven when you die? You want this relationship with Him? Stand up! Stand up! God bless you. Stand up! You guys at Harvest Riverside, you guys at Harvest Maui, you stand up as well! Wherever you are, just stand up, and I’m going to lead you in a prayer. I remember hearing a story that someone told me where I was asking people to stand up, and they were watching on a computer, and they said, «I walked in the room, and they were standing in front of their computer, praying the same prayer.» That’s so cool!

Wherever you are, Christ can come into your life! I’ll wait one more moment. Maybe somebody else would say, «I want Jesus today!» Stand up and let me lead you in this prayer. Anybody else? All right.

Okay, you that are standing, I’ll pray a prayer. I want you to pray it out loud after me. Again, as I pray this prayer, pray it out loud after me, okay? Let’s all bow our heads. Pray these words: «Lord Jesus, I know that I’m a sinner, but I know that You’re the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now. I repent of my sin, and I choose to follow You, Jesus. Thank You for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.»

God bless each one of you that prayed that prayer! God bless you! Thank you! You can be seated. Thank you! Thank you for standing! And I want to give you a gift when we’re done here in a few moments. It’s a New Believer’s Bible. It looks like the one I’m holding in my hand. It’s a custom-designed edition of the New Testament with a bunch of notes I wrote just for you. So don’t leave today without your New Believer’s Bible.

You can see that we have these trays here with the bread and the cup for you. They’re going to distribute it to you as you worship. I would ask that you take the bread and the cup, hold on to it till we’re all served, and then we’ll partake together, okay? So let’s worship the Lord!

Then on the third, at break of dawn, the Son of Heaven rose again. You hold in your hands the bread, a symbol of the broken body of Jesus Christ. He met with His disciples in the upper room at what we call the Last Supper. He didn’t say, «Hey, guys, this is the last supper.» It was just another meal with His disciples. But indeed, it was! And then He said something He had never said before. They’d eaten bread before; they’d drank from the cup before. But now He says, «This is a symbol of My body.» And His body would be so broken, so beaten. According to Isaiah 53, beaten beyond human recognition: «This is My body, which is broken for you.» Then He tells us, «This do in remembrance of Me.»

So we remember His suffering, His sacrifice, and His love. Let’s pray now: Lord, as we hold this bread in our hand, we say thank You for all that You went through for us because You loved us. Hebrews tells us, «For the joy that was set before You, You endured the cross, despising the shame.» And that joy, we know, was us- it was us as Your children, as Your sons and daughters, worshiping You. And we’re so thankful that You went through this for us. So thank You, Jesus, and we receive this bread now in remembrance of You. Let’s partake together.

The same night in which He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus took that cup. It’s a new covenant that’s being established. All those Old Testament types and pictures are now fulfilled. The blood that they would shed over the doorposts on Passover-now that’s fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Why does the blood of Jesus matter? Because the Bible says, «If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.»

Only the blood of Christ can cleanse you from sin, and only the blood of Christ can give you the power to overcome sin. We read of those courageous people in the book of Revelation, and it says, «They overcame Satan by the word of their testimony; they loved not their lives unto the death, and by the blood of the Lamb.» That’s how we overcome sin; that’s how we’re forgiven of sin.

Let’s pray now: Lord, as we hold this cup, we thank You for the blood Jesus shed for us, the sacrifice He made. And now we pray that You will cleanse us of all sin, known and unknown, by the precious blood of Jesus. Let’s partake together.